Top executives and editors from several major dailies in the Northeast met in mid-Oct. to hammer out a content-sharing agreement that could replace their agreements with The Associated Press. A "Northeast Consortium" of newspapers may include the New York Daily News, Newsday, the Buffalo News the Times-Union of Albany, N.Y., and the Star Ledger of Newark, N.J. An insider says the new arrangement would offer cost savings, a more timely exchange of content and "a new spirit of cooperation" among members. Lately some newspapers struggling to streamline their operations have expressed dissatisfaction with the AP.

Television is at heart about intimacy and economy. It is best at communicating small things, person to person--thriving not on spectacle but on conversation. TV is also well-positioned to survive hard times. People will watch it because it's almost free, and they will especially watch it when they're out of work. But it may need to go back to its roots. In a tough economy, executives, producers and creative people should treat TV like it is small, fuzzy and black-and-white again. French New Wave filmmakers found that a shoestring budget was no impediment to creating beauty or suspense. …

JetBlue Airways is becoming the third partner to join Airline TV, an aerial ad network from out-of-home company IdeaCast. The other airline partners are Continental Airlines and Frontier Airlines. The network will be Nielsen-rated by year's end. Since IdeaCast does this for other airlines, [the partnership] gives JetBlue broader access to advertisers than selling ads on their programming on its own, says Fiona Morrisson, JetBlue director. Industrywide, airlines are boosting ad-supported in-flight entertainment to create extra revenue so they don't have to charge for bags and other services.

If you could only keep your TV, your phone or your online computer, what would it be? With the recession looming, agencies, media, telecoms and marketers are pondering the implications of how people would answer that question. By most accounts, the winner could be the computer and its broadband connection--which provides streaming video, paid content, telecommunications and Web publications. For instance, research by Mindshare and Ogilvy & Mather shows that online women choose their laptop computers over TV or mobile phones as their device of choice.

NBC is rearranging its prime-time schedule, creating a crime-centric Wednesday lineup and exiling the struggling "Lipstick Jungle" to Fridays. As part of the change, the stalwart "Law & Order" is returning sooner than expected--back in a familiar spot Wednesday at 10 p.m., beginning Nov. 5. On the same night, the drama "Life" will move to Wednesday at 9 p.m., behind "Knight Rider," at 8 p.m. "Lipstick" will move to Friday at 10 p.m. beginning Oct. 31. NBC executives say they hope the shifts will entice viewers with "wall-to-wall satisfying mysteries" on Wednesday night.

Two broadcasters are turning their election night broadcast into an excuse to provide a branded gathering place for passersby. NBC News will set up shop in Rockefeller Plaza, using electronic signs of their own to show results and lighting the skating rink red and blue, depending on how states vote. ABC News will broadcast from its Times Square studios and blast video and electronic ticker results to people nearby. It bought space from Reuters, Nasdaq and the Hard Rock Cafe to take over their electronic signs across the street for Election Day. It will also be airing on-the-street …

It may be late 2009 before the economy recovers enough for new consumer magazines, but a Singapore publisher is betting the luxury magazine market is stable enough to launch one in February. CR Media plans to introduce Prestige New York, a U.S. version of its Prestige Singapore flagship. Editorial will include the predictable mix of city society leaders, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, politicians and innovators, but with an atypical international flavor. The monthly will target "high net worth individuals" with controlled circulation of 50,000.,br> Finding advertisers may prove to be tricky. Ad pages for the Robb Report and Departures magazines, …